The History of the Great Awakening - Research Paper Example

The History of the Great Awakening Great Awakening is a period of religious revival in American religious history which happened in the eighteenth century and in the late twentieth century. An English minister, George Whitefield is considered as the father of Great Awakening who started his religious reformation by attacking the Anglican Church or the Church of England. George Whitefield was great orator and he mesmerized the people with his way of speech. He has started an aggressive attack towards the established principles of traditional churches and clergy. “In New England the movement died out rapidly, leaving behind bitter doctrinal disputes between the “New Lights” and the “Old Lights,” the latter led by Charles Chauncy, a Boston clergyman, who opposed the revivalist movement as extravagant and impermanent” (Great Awakening). However, the waves of religious awakening soon spread to America and it attained proper shape in America. Great Awakening is classified into different categories based on the period of occurrence like; first second, third and fourth Great Awakenings. First Great Awakening started in AD1734 and lasted till 1750 whereas second Great Awakening occurred in between 1800-1840. The third Great Awakening started in 1880 and lasted till 1910 whereas the fourth Great Awakening happened in the late 1960’s and at the beginning of 1970’s. In all the four great Awakening histories, Protestants were at one side and the traditional churches at the other end. This paper analyses the history and significance of Great Awakening. The Great Awakening arose at a time when man in Europe and the American colonies were questioning the role of the individual in religion and society. It began at the same time as the Enlightenment which emphasized logic and reason and stressed the power of the individual to understand the universe based on scientific laws. Similarly, individuals grew to rely more on a personal approach to salvation than church dogma and doctrine (Kelly) According to Professor Kidd (2009),“In the generation before awakening, the rivalry between Anglicans and dissenters was sharp. Dissenters were the subjects of discrimination at that time” (Professor Kidd, p.43). Church was the most dominant segment in American and British societies before the beginning of Great Awakening. Even politicians were afraid of the churches and they never tried to do something against the interests of the churches. In other words, the dominance of church was evident in all the aspects of human life in Britain and America before Great Awakening succeeded in ending the domination of churches. Those who questioned the established beliefs and customs of the churches were labeled as rebels and they forced to become the subjects of discrimination. “There is famous Zen dictum that encapsulated the notion: “Great Doubt: Great Awakening, Little Doubt: Little Awakening”” (Hecht, p.214). In other words, whenever the extent of doubt becomes heavier, people will try to seek the truth more aggressively and therefore more chances are there for them to find out the truth. On the other hand, if people possess little doubt about certain thing, they will never bother much to research about it and will never find out the truth. The above notion seems to be applicable in the case of Great Awakening also. Until George Whitefield started to question some of the established customs and principles of Anglican Church, nobody thought anything seriously about the logics of traditional church beliefs. However, George Whitefield succeeded in creating strong doubts in the minds of believers and in preparing the field for Great Awakening, especially in Christian countries. In the mid 1730’s colonial revivalists surveyed the religious landscape around them and found that it to be in a deplorable state. They saw men and women attending worship services, but they witnessed little practice of genuine piety. They feared that, for many, faith had reduced to an intellectual acceptance of certain propositions rather than a life changing conversion experience. Rather than despairing, the awakeners took hope in the midst of spiritual decline. Their reading of the scriptures convinced them, and when spiritual light is almost extinguished, God sends an extraordinary effusion of his spirit to arouse his people in a mighty awakening (Lambert, p.19)› Visit Amazons Frank Lambert Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Most of the people who attended the church masses before the awakening period were not much devoted to their worship. They attended the prayers and masses, not for worshipping the God, but for keeping the custom. Their intelligence forced them to think against the teachings of religion, especially after seeing the activities of church bishops and priests during this period. The great principles preached inside the churches were violated outside by the preachers themselves. People realized that there were serious differences between what is taught inside by the priests and what is done by the priests outside. People such as Gilbert Tennent, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, David Brainerd, Eleazar Wheelock, Samuel Kirkland Martin Luther King Jr etc were the pioneers of Great Awakening in different awakening periods. They sensed the dangers of losing faith in religion and started their efforts to strengthen true spirituality. They started to define Christian principles in a separate manner and tried to re-write some of the established Christian doctrines by the churches. In other words, the Great Awakening process has started because of the church’s failure in defining morality and ethics in a logical manner. “The Great Awakening defines exactly what the moral value issues really are” (Wallis, p.44). Earlier, morality and ethics were stayed in paper alone; in practice such things were not visible even the lives of the priests. Colonial revivalists or the pioneers of Great Awakening taught the people that “being truly religious meant trusting the heart rather than the head, prizing feeling more than thinking, and relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason” (Heyrman). They realized that ordinary people forced to obey the teachings of the churches even though they had many doubts. They tried to give a new face to beliefs and customs and asked the people to think deeply before blindly obeying the customs and traditions of the churches. “Historian Perry Miller once argued that Great Awakening was nothing more than an inevitable culmination of the covenant renewals” (Professor Kidd,p.3). Most of the people in America during the first awakening period, believed that the presence of God was there with the pioneers of Great Awakening. However, the church was not ready to accept that claim. For them “The revival was an emotional orgy that needlessly disturbed the churches and frustrated the true works of God” (Bushman, p.xii). Church was never ready to accept their pitfalls or to accept the teachings of the pioneers of Great Awakening. Church labeled the activities of the Awakeners as a conscious effort to destroy religion and churches in American and in other Christian countries. So, church opposed the doctrines of Awakeners with nail and tooth. The first Great Awakening left colonials sharply polarized along religious lines. Anglicans and Quakers gained new members among those who disapproved of the revival’s excesses, while the Baptists (and, in the 1770s, the Methodists) made even more handsome gains from the ranks of radical evangelical converts. The largest single group of churchgoing Americans remained within the Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations, but they divided internally between advocates and opponents of the Awakening, known respectively as “New Lights” and “Old Lights.” Inevitably, civil governments were drawn into the fray. In colonies where one denomination received state support, other churches lobbied legislatures for disestablishment, an end to the favored status of Congregationalism in Connecticut and Massachusetts and of Anglicanism in the southern colonies (Heyrman) American social life has polarized towards two entirely different ideologies during the period of first great awakening. In fact an ideological war has been started between the “New Lights” and “Old Lights” during this period. Even though both “New Lights” and “Old Lights” accepted the authenticity of Bible, both of them differed heavily in the interpretations of the teachings of Bible and Jesus Christ. Both “New Lights” and “Old Lights’ started lobbying to gather as many people in their side and to strengthen their functioning. In fact intense fight with words occurred between the two groups and a possibility of a clash was on card during this period. However, the timely intervention of the government prevented the possibility of war between these two extremely different ideological groups. According to Bushman (1989), “the awakening reached so many people because protestant beliefs, which controlled the colonist’ view of the world, placed so much importance on conversion” (Bushman, p.xii). Protestants were ready to accept all the people, irrespective of their cast, race, or culture in the name of God or Jesus Christ. On the other hand, churches were not ready to do so and it always kept a distance from other communities or casts. In other words, churches tried to limit the kingdom of God to a particular community. On the other hand, Protestants integrated the kingdom of God and they were ready to accept all the people in the name of God. So, people from even other communities started join the protestant community. For example, Wallis (2008) has pointed out that many people from other communities and casts were joined the protestant community during the fourth awakening period because of Martin Luther King Jr’s call for a Beloved Community (Wallis, p.88). In other words, Martin Luther King never asked the people to join a protestant community or a church community; instead he asked the people to join a beloved community in which all the people enjoy equal status. The second Great Awakening occurred in between 1800-1840, especially in the western states of America and in New York. Thousands of people converted to evangelical religion during this period. Seventh-day Adventists, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Latter Day Saint movement etc were some of the protestant churches formed during this period. Charles Granison Finney was one of the pioneers of second great awakening. He has stressed the importance of leading a perfect life or a life without sins during this period. He succeeded in converting thousands of non-believers in to believers because of his electrifying speeches. Abolition of slavery, women rights, problems of alcoholic drinks, etc were some of the topics used in the second Awakening period to gather public attention. The third Great awakening started during the latter half of the nineteenth century. It lasted till the beginning of the twentieth century. American Civil War interrupted the functioning of Third Great Awakening in many cities of America. The core argument of the third great awakeners was that Jesus Christ’s second coming will be only after the baptizing of the entire people in this world. This belief was against the traditional beliefs of the churches. According to the information available in Bible, nobody can predict the timing of second coming of Jesus Christ. However, theologians of Third Great Awakening believed that it will happen only after the complete reformation of the world. The Third Great Awakening succeeded in redefining spirituality in many ways. As per this thought, spirituality is not meant completely about the worshipping God. Any social activity which results in the betterment of the society was also included under spirituality by the reformers during this period. Thus colleges, universities, hospitals, etc were established by the pioneers of Third Great Awakening. The pioneers of third Great Awakening have given more emphasized to mass prayers. They conducted different public prayer ceremonies in a silent and disciplined manner. What impressed observers, and the press, was that there was no fanaticism, hysteria, or objectionable behavior, only a moving impulse to pray. Finney commented, “The general impression seemed to be, ‘We have had instruction until we are hardened; it is now time for us to pray.’ ” Little preaching was done. As the people gathered they were largely silent; there was a great overarching attitude of glorifying God (Christian History) The fourth great awakening started to occur in America during the latter part of 1960’s. Scholars or theologians have no disagreement about the occurrence of the first three great awakenings; however the fourth great awakening is a controversial one because of the controversies about its occurrence. There are many people who rejected the idea of Fourth Great Awakening because of its huge differences from the first three great awakenings. One of the major characteristics of fourth great awakening is the exhaustion of protestant churches and the strengthening of the Baptist and Evangelical churches. Secularism has gained more prominence during this period and the concept of organized religion changed a lot as a result of the fourth great awakening. To conclude, the great awakening happened in America during different periods. The First Great Awakening happened between 1734 and 1750 and the Second Great Awakening occurred during 1800-1840 period. The third Great Awakening started in 1880 and it lasted till 1910. Even though the existence of Fourth Great Awakening is questionable, many people believe that it happened during the latter part of 1960’s and at the beginning of 1970’s. All the four Great Awakenings influenced America’s spiritual and social life in one way or other. The first great awakening succeeded in eradicating some superstitions in spiritual life and it put an end to the supremacies of traditional churches. An English minister, George Whitefield is considered as the father of all the Great Awakenings. As a result of the four great awakenings, different new churches established in America and each of them defined spirituality in its own manner. Some churches argued that the aim of spirituality is not entirely related to worshipping alone and they started many social works as part of their spiritual life. Thus many schools, colleges, universities and hospitals were established at different parts of America. In short, the four Great Awakenings succeeded in rewriting the vision and mission of Christianity. Works Cited 1. Bushman, Richard. “The Great Awakening: Documents on the Revival of Religion, 1740-1745”. 1989. Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 11, 1989) 2. Christian History. “The Time for Prayer: The Third Great Awakening”. Web. 30 July 2011. 3. “Great Awakening”. Web. 30 July 2011. 4. Hecht, Jennifer Michael › Visit Amazons Jennifer Michael Hecht Page Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson Publisher: HarperOne (September 7, 2004) 5. Heyrman, Christine Leigh. “The First Great Awakening”. 2008. Web. 30 July 2011. 6. Lambert› Visit Amazons Frank Lambert Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central , Frank. “Inventing the "Great Awakening"”. Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 3, 2001) 7. Kelley, Martin. The Great Awakening”. Web. 30 July 2011. 8. Professor Kidd, Thomas S. “The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America”. 2009. Publisher: Yale University Press (September 1, 2009) 9. Wallis Jim. “The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America”. 2008. Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (January 22, 2008) Read More